Tri-C is providing on-the-spot training with new mobile lab

Tri-C's Manufacturing Technology Center of Excellence has a new mobile training unit.

Cuyahoga Community College wants to help close the manufacturing skills gap by taking training directly to companies and students.

All it needs is an open section of parking spaces to house the Tri-C Manufacturing Technology Center of Excellence's new mobile training unit.

The mobile training unit looks like a semi-truck from the outside. Inside, the trailer is split into a technology-equipped classroom and a flexible lab space that can be adapted to best serve the population at hand.

"We're really fully equipped to be a mobile classroom," said Alicia Booker, vice president of manufacturing.

This is part of Tri-C's Manufacturing Technology Center of Excellence. The center is an effort to bring together all the college's manufacturing technology-related education, Booker said, from academics to workforce development.

Booker said the mobile center is a response to the growing pockets of advanced manufacturing jobs outside of Cuyahoga County, in areas such as Lake, Ashtabula and Summit counties. While Cuyahoga County is clearly a focus for Tri-C, the college doesn't want to hew so closely to boundaries when there are companies that need its services. Most of the workforce training Tri-C currently offers in manufacturing takes place at its Advanced Technology Training Center and the Unified Technologies Center, both on Woodland Avenue in Cleveland.

"How do we reach where the need is?" Booker said.

The mobile training unit helps answer that question by letting the college provide training when and where employers need it.

This mobile lab expands Tri-C's advanced manufacturing footprint without infrastructure costs. The trailer cost $340,000, according to information provided by the college.

The 53-foot-long trailer is split half for classroom space and half for lab space, said program manager Freeland Southard. The classroom portion has a whiteboard, an overhead projector and 10 desks, arranged so all students can see the front of the room. There are windows in the trailer so it's not so closed off, and carpet on the walls to muffle sounds from the outdoors. The back is equipped with electricity that can handle large equipment — Booker said it's designed to be "plug and play," so as long as a piece of equipment fits through the door, it can be used. Southard said the trailer is wheelchair accessible and has a security system installed.

This mobile training unit is the center's first, Booker said. And while other organizations have mobile labs or mobile classrooms, she thinks this stands out because it has both. It's designed to be a "training center on wheels," Booker said.

The renovated mobile lab was delivered in January, Booker said, and is now being rolled out at events. Tri-C also is reaching out to companies, K-12 schools, community colleges and universities in the area to show them what the mobile unit can be used for.

General Motors' Parma plant plans to use the mobile manufacturing unit to help train its journeyman electricians, said Lou Chapman, UAW Local 1005 apprentice co-chairman. The 10 apprentices just began in January, and GM intends to start using the mobile unit to help with their preliminary classes in April, Chapman said.

Previously, apprentices had to drive to Tri-C's facilities in Cleveland for training, Chapman said. The mobile training center will save them that commute. Plus, the mobile training center is easily adapted to the site's needs, he said, and to its hours of operation.

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